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Grammar Without Tears - Tabitha Ormiston-Smith

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all to be thanked are many of the staff at Bendigo Bank, where I first wrote my grammar bulletins. The constant flow of messages and suggestions was so encouraging; it was my first experience of fan mail, and so very gratifying.

Thanks are due to the late Dr Marion Colville for the idea of putting my little bulletins together as a book. I’d never have thought of it myself.

To Brian Burbidge I owe the title. Thank you Brian! It’s perfect! I should also mention that without Brian, this book would never have come into existence, as he thoughtfully retained the only printed copies of my draft material when I had lost all my files.

Superlatively grateful thanks to Patti Roberts and Paradox Book Covers, for my wonderful cover art. It is truly magnificent, and Patti I bless you every day for my beautiful covers, and just for all your help and support.

Finally, to my clients, one and all. You make it all worthwhile.

VERBS

PERFECT TENSE

SCENE: a garden. Betty is seated under a tree. Enter John.

J: I say, Betty, there are fairies at the bottom of our garden. I seen one this morning.

B: You mean you SAW one, John. We only say SEEN when we say, ‘I have seen’ or ‘I was seen’, and things like that. So, what was it like?

J: It had wings like a bat, and sharp teeth. It was eating a dead rat. I reckon it come up out of the drain.

B: You mean it CAME up out of the drain. We only say COME when it’s like, ‘he will come’, or ‘it has come’, and so on. Did the fairy say anything?

J: Naah. It kind of spat at me, and I done my block and chucked a rock at it. It scuttled off down the drain.

B: Really, John. If Mumsie could hear you she would be frightfully cross. You mustn’t